The Hive interface: sidebar, panes, tabs and spaces

What the sidebar, tab bar, status symbols and marks mean, how panes, tabs and spaces work, the mouse, and using Hive from several windows.

  SPACES                  │   1  2  +                                   api
                          │
  ● api                 2 │   (the focused agent's terminal)
    main ~3 ↑1            │
  · docs                1 │
                          │
  + new            ● menu │
 ─────────────────────────│
  AGENTS                  │
 ▌◐ claude              1 │
    api · main            │
  ◆ codex               2 │
    api · wt hive/codex-2 │
  ● #1 api · main · running · 2 active      Ctrl+Space leader · then : commands

SPACES lists the places you are working: one per repository (or folder), with its branch and how many sessions it has. A space shows the status of its most urgent agent. Only spaces with something open are listed.

AGENTS lists every agent in every space, numbered for Alt+1–Alt+9, so you see which one needs you wherever you are. It includes agents you started by hand in a terminal, listed by name (e.g. claude). Plain terminals and tool panes such as lazygit aren't listed.

Click a space to switch to it, an agent to open it, + new for a new space and menu for the command palette. Ctrl+Space b hides the sidebar; it also hides itself in narrow terminals.

Agent status

Symbol	ASCII	Meaning
◐	`~`	working
◆	`!`	needs input: a permission prompt or a question
✓	`+`	done: finished while you were looking elsewhere; clears when you open it
●	`*`	idle, or a session without a recognised agent

See agent status for how Hive knows.

Session marks

Mark	ASCII	Meaning
○	`o`	exited
✕	`x`	failed to start, or crashed
◌	`?`	lost: it was running when the daemon stopped unexpectedly. Enter relaunches it
▌	`>`	the session you are looking at
`wt`	`wt`	runs in its own git worktree
`!`	`!`	shares its directory with another running agent: they may edit the same files
`~3 ↑1 ↓2`	`~3 ^1 v2`	with git status on: changed files, commits ahead, behind

The ASCII column is what you see on the Linux console, without a UTF-8 locale, or with [theme] glyphs = "ascii".

Panes and tabs

Split the screen to watch several agents at once: Ctrl+Space v (right) or - (below) opens a new terminal in a split. Each pane is its own terminal at its own size, with a title row showing its session and status. Keys go to the focused pane; click a pane or press o to focus another, z to zoom it.

Tabs hold sets of panes. The tab row above the panes (1 2 +) is clickable: pick a tab, or + for a new terminal tab. Tabs belong to a space, so the row shows the current space's tabs and Alt+↑ Alt+↓ switches space and its tabs together.

Closing a pane or tab ends its sessions, so nothing keeps running out of sight; Hive asks first if that would stop a running agent. To leave everything running, detach instead. The arrangement of panes lasts until you quit hive; the sessions keep running either way. Tabs you aren't looking at cost nothing: Hive only mirrors what is on screen.

Spaces follow your terminals

+ new (or Ctrl+Space S) opens a terminal in your home folder in a space of its own. cd somewhere and within a couple of seconds the terminal and its tab move to that place's space, created if needed:

inside a git repository, the repository's space;
elsewhere, the deepest existing space containing the folder;
otherwise a new space for the folder itself (cd ~/Work makes a Work space).

Your home folder's space only holds terminals in home itself. On Windows, terminals stay in the space they started in. To add a folder as a space without opening a terminal, use Add a folder as a space in the palette (Tab completes the path).

The command palette

Ctrl+Space : (or menu) searches every command, session and space by fuzzy match; Enter runs or opens it. Ctrl+Space / searches sessions only, by label, agent, space or branch. The palette and the help screen are built from your own key bindings, so they always match them.

Mouse

Everything in the sidebar and the tab bar is clickable, the wheel scrolls the sidebar, and clicking a pane focuses it. In a terminal, clicks and the wheel go to agents that use the mouse; full-screen programs without mouse support scroll with the wheel. Hold Shift to select text with your terminal as usual.

Right-click for menus:

a space: open, new terminal here, rename, close space (asks first);
a tab: rename, split right or below, close tab;
an agent: open, rename, split right or below, terminate.

Turn the mouse off with [terminal] mouse_support = false.

Several windows

You can run hive in two terminals, or on two machines over SSH, at once. When both show the same session, the first controls it and the second watches; the status bar says observing. Ctrl+Space a in the watching window takes control. The session's terminal size follows the window in control.